1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to virtual machines. More particularly, it relates to communication of a virtual machine with the outside to enable real time supervision of activation of the virtual machine.
2. Description of Related Art
Virtualization refers to a process in which a set of hardware is virtualized into sets of hardware on a computer hardware platform in a software or hardware approach and provided as separately operating environments to a plurality of separately operating software systems (typically operating systems, e.g., Window 98, Window 2000, Windows XP, Linux, Unix, Mac, etc.), and such a separately operating environment is commonly referred to a Virtual Machine (VM). A plurality of separate operating systems can be run in parallel on a virtualization-enabled computer device.
These operating systems are independent from one another except for sharing hardware resources (e.g., memories, input and output devices, etc.) when they are operative and thus can be taken as a plurality of separating computer in operation. Generally, a virtualization-enabled computer is used to run operating systems and application software systems functioning differently.
Currently, virtualization is at the forward position of the era and can aid enterprises in updating and managing and also secure their worldwide IT infrastructures. In the coming years, virtual machines will not be limited to simple deployment of resources or the use as a computer room any longer, but they will also provide an elementary constructive block so as to improve mobility, security and availability of desktops.
A virtual machine typically includes the entire operative environment consisting of a virtual hardware, an operating system, a middleware, an application program, etc., and thus can provide a simple, uniform and easy-to-use interface to thereby facilitate convenient deployment of services.
A virtual machine can be deployed in various environments. The virtual machine shall be configured during activation thereof. Parameters for configuring the virtual machine may exist internal or external to the virtual machine and shall be provided to the virtual machine in the latter case. Currently, there are two primary methods for providing a virtual machine with configuration parameters to activate the virtual machine.
A first method involves the use of a privileged console of a virtual machine hypervisor. For convenience, a physical machine where the virtual machine is located, an operating system of the physical machine and an application module for managing the virtual machine are referred to collectively as a virtual machine hypervisor which typically provides a privileged console through which a user logs in the virtual machine. The privileged console is usable when a network of virtual machines is unavailable or deactivated. A drawback of this method is the absence of universality because the privileged console is bound with the virtual machine hypervisor and a virtual machine logging-in interface provided by the privileged console is also dependent upon the specific virtual machine hypervisor. Thus, a user has to manually log in and configure the virtual machine, which may be difficult to grasp and troublesome for the user.
A second method involves the use of a virtual floppy disk or CD-ROM in which information required for activation of a virtual machine is stored. Upon activation of the virtual machine, an activation engine in the virtual machine traverses installed disks and locates an activation profile in the virtual floppy disk or virtual CD-ROM and then makes use of parameters in the activation profile during activation of the virtual machine. A drawback of the second method lies in a required ability of the virtual machine to identify a format of the virtual floppy disk or virtual CD-ROM and to take the activation profile therefrom. Furthermore, it is impossible to supervise activation of the virtual machine through the virtual floppy disk or CD-ROM.